Barack Obama, speaking in Reno, Nevada, yesterday, laid out his mission at a rally:

“I have to be so persuasive, that you’re going to have an epiphany, and you’re going to say for yourself, ‘I have to caucus for Obama, I have to do it.’ … You will have more to say about who will be our next president than just about anybody else on earth. Take advantage of that extraordinary opportunity.”

“I don’t run because I have been yearning to be president for all my life. I know people have been looking through my kindergarten papers, but that’s not it. I’m not running for the presidency because I feel I’m owed it. I decided to run because of what Dr. King called, ‘the fierce urgency as now.’ ”

“I decided to run, because I was betting on all of you.”

(I don’t know if that was a conscious or subconscious reference to gambling in Nevada. Or maybe it’s a subtle jab at Bill Clinton calling his potential presidency “a crapshoot.”)